TORONTO — The Blue Jays’ left-hander put things right for the struggling club on Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre.

The Jays rode a solid start by LHP Francisco Liriano in blanking the Boston Red Sox 3-0, Toronto’s third victory in 14 games this season. Liriano is 1-1 after picking up the win. Rick Porcello, 1-2, took the loss for Boston.

“Just an all around great ball game,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “That’s what it takes sometimes. We got some key hits and our defence was really good and of course it starts with Liriano, who was dynamite. He had that bloop opening start, but the last couple of starts he’s been really, really good. But that’s what he can do.”

Boston and Toronto are tied 1-1 in the series, with the rubber match to played on Thursday afternoon before the Jays embark on a seven-game road trip to Los Angeles and St. Louis. The Jays are trying to avoid starting the season by losing five consecutive series, something they have never done in the history of the franchise.

The Jays scored all their runs in the second inning when Darwin Barney smacked a Porcello offering up the middle to score Troy Tulowitzki from third and Russell Martin from second with one out. With Barney at third and Kevin Pillar at first, Ezequiel Carrera hit a single to right to score Barney, putting Toronto ahead 3-0. Tulowitzki and Martin both got on via errors. All three runs were unearned. Porcello settled down nicely after the second, going seven complete, giving up six hits and one walk while striking out five.

Jays slugger Jose Bautista continued to struggle and has gone 51 at-bats this season without hitting a home run. After striking out to end the seventh, some of the fans at the Rogers Centre let Bautista have it.

The Jays played some great defence behind Liriano, starting with a nice catch by Pillar on Hanley Ramirez in the second on a hard hit ball over Pillar’s head. In the fourth, Tulowitzki made a nice back-handed stab on a high-hopper to get Andrew Benitendi at first, although later in the inning he booted a grounder by Ramirez to allow the Boston DH get on base with two out. Barney, playing for the injured Josh Donaldson at third, made a nice sliding grab on a Chris Young grounder to get Young out in the seventh, ending the inning.

Liriano was pulled in the sixth inning with the Jays ahead 3-0 after putting Benitendi and Mookie Betts on base with one out. He was replaced by Joe Biagini, who promptly ended the inning by getting Ramirez to hit into a double play. Liriano pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up no runs and walking one. He also struck out six Red Sox, including Betts in the fourth inning, the first strikeout by the Boston outfielder in 129 regular season at-bats — the longest by a Red Sox hitter since Denny Doyle in 1975. It was the second solid start by the Jays’ left-hander since his disastrous first start of the season on April 7 at Tampa Bay, when he lasted one-third of an inning, allowing five earned runs.

“I didn’t try to do too much,” said Liriano, who clicked with Martin behind the plate. “I just tried to throw strikes, the defence played really well behind me and like usual, just trusted Russell, and we did a good job.”

Liriano was probably the Jays’ best starter in spring training and Gibbons knew he’d bounce back from his April 7 start.

“He goes through those little ruts where he’ll lose his strikes,” said the manager. “He (sometimes) falls to the right and that can kind of throw him a little bit out of whack. He’s got a great slider and a great change up and he’ll throw that at any time. But the key is, when he gets a little bit out whack, usually you’ll see Russ go out there and he gets right back on line. But his stuff is really good, still dominating for a guy who’s been around for so long. But I think the fact he can throw anything at anytime and if he keeps that ball down he can spike some balls and get some strikeouts because coming in the zone, it disappears on ya.”

Jason Grilli took over from Biagini in the eighth and managed to get Betts to ground out to short for the third out with two on.

Toronto closer Roberto Osuna pitched the ninth, giving up a one-out single by Mitch Moreland to left, which Carrera played perfectly to prevent Moreland from getting to second on the hit. Osuna then struck out Xander Bogaerts and got Young to ground out for the win, picking up his first save of the season.

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